FMP: Inspiring Quote

"...the simplest surrealist act consists of dashing down into the street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly..." - Andre Breton

You Are Here: Visiting Cannon Street Station

Photos I took whilst at Cannon Street

Sketches and recordings made at Cannon Street Station

All photos are authors own

Going to Cannon Street and taking time to get in touch with the area, study it, delving into its finest details was a really fascinating experience and it provoked many potential ideas. I found this way of working to be really successful in generating ideas. A great way to become inspired. As I sat just watching, listening and experiencing the ambiance my brain was already working up potential narratives. It was also a really good opportunity just to do some drawing and study mundane life. However, I did find the whole experience rather exhausting and I barely left the station as I wanted to explore it before going out on the street. Although, I think it would be quite interesting just to concentrate on the station. More specifically, the underground.

Freedom & Liberty: Title Card

Title card design development

Authors own

I focused on the idea of being trapped and controlled, in my title card design. I wanted to include the protagonist and the antagonist in a situation that represented the concept of my piece. I think each idea that I produced captured that in one way or another, but I found some of them to work more successfully than others when considering visual communication and aesthetics. I was also playing around with the symbolism of the black power salute (a raised fist) in reverse (a fist punting downwards) to symbolise the oppressive nature of the narrative. I also worked slightly with tone, using a darker tone to surround the character, reflecting their mental state. I found this ideas to be very visually effective and emotive. However, when regarding the pose of the character, some of the positions were quite weak. For example, the very last coloured image that you see in the photo above gives the expression that the character has laid flat by choice, voluntarily being controlled. In order for me to create a successful image for the title card I will ask others what each image is saying to them and from that choose the one that evokes the most accurate interpretations. Once I have decided this, I can finally move onto the production stage.  

Freedom & Liberty: Character Design and Development

                 

  

Character design

Authors own

I feel that the most successful part of my character design is its detachment of gender and race, as humans comprehend it. I kept everything simple, which works well in portraying a lack of identity. The process of designing the facial features of the character was interesting, as I had to consider avoiding any racial stereotypes, so I tried to keep the features simplistic, choosing to give the character brown eyes as brown eyes can be found within most races. I chose orange as the skin tone as it further detaches human ideas of an existing race. Initially I was going to give my character hair, but it quickly became apparent that different styles/textures of hair were developing an identity for the character, no matter how androgynous the styles were. Therefore, I decided to stick with the one curled hair atop the characters head. I tried to design an outfit that was in keeping with the idea of non-gender, non-race, non-ideanty. I found the red jumper and genes to work best as both men and women these garments and they are quite simplistic designs, saying very little about the personal taste of the character. 

Freedom & Liberty: Initial Storyboard

Initial storyboard

Photos are authors own

This is my initial storyboard for the freedom and liberty project. I found the process to be very time consuming as it is the most in-depth, elaborate story I have worked on so far. However, due to my inclusion of more boxes I was able to get a clearer picture of my final piece. The most successful component of this storyboard is the concept and its potential. Although, the sequence of events sort of splits into two separate stories. In order to work past this issue I will pick one half of the story that I can work best with. I need to identify one goal for the character, which is making it to the park. I also need to create a more sever antagonist and identify the significance of that antagonist (the hand). At the moment it is coming across as a parental hand, but I wasn't leaning towards that idea. I wish to make it the hand of unnecessary brutality and control.

Freedom & Liberty: Research and Concept

Research into Freedom & Liberty, including definitions (authors own)

Screen shot of freedom (google search)

Olympics: Black Power Salute (right to left: John Carlos, Tommie Smith and Peter Norman)

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/30/black-power-salute-1968-olympics

For this project I aim to make a short animated piece that communicates something about Freedom and Liberty, and what it means to me. I started my research, looking into dictionary definitions of the terms and then diversified my sources onto the world wide web and that of other peoples opinions on the matter. I then watched documentaries and films such as, The Naked Rambler, that explores others opinions on what freedom is, in this case to be publicly nude without being antagonised. I also watched the films, The Truman Show and Bruce Almighty (both staring Jim Carey). I found something very interesting being said in Bruce Almighty, which was about the idea of playing God and the limits to that power. We as humans all have free will, we make our own decisions and choose our own paths. This can be manipulated by those around us, but ultimately it is our choice (unless you believe in destiny). However, in animation an animator has the job of playing God and the poor character has absolutely no free will. In continuing this project I will work with the concept of free will.

I then looked into historical revolutions, such as the black power movement and freedom fighters. I found it to be rich in potential visual metaphors. The black panther could be a great visual metaphor for me to play with, as well as the salute (seen above) . Oppressed, black people were almost completely without freedom, but the Black Panther movement was them using their free will to make a difference. Just like them, I want my character to fight back.

Title Sequence: 'BBC Three 60 Seconds News' Final Animation

This is my final animated title sequence for BBC Three 60 Seconds News, made in Flash and edited in iMovie.

I feel as though I was successful in visually communicated the idea of technology and travelling information. The added sound and revolving, multicoloured circle introduced the concept of time and fast pace. However, I feel that my decision to tween the travelling line into a circle instead of creating a frame-by-frame transition, where the line curls into itself, weakened the overall flow of events that occurred in the sequence. I was surprised throughout the process of making this title sequence how easily ideas came to me and how well the production phase ran. Perhaps because I was dealing with less complex ideas and and a shorter timeframe. However, if I were to remake this title sequence I would try to create something with more movement, using frame-by-frame animation, as the end result always feels more impressive and rewarding.

Title Sequence: 'BBC Three News' Storyboarding

Storyboard generation for BBC Three 60 Seconds News title sequence

The process of making a storyboard for BBC Three 60 Seconds News was really fun because it was fast paced and I was able to think more about ideas of communication, time and technology as it is in this present time. For primary research I watched the show and the things it includes; what news it chooses to share, how we as viewers are addressed, how it looks visually (making sketches of this in my book) etc. I found it to concentrate mostly on social matters and tabloid news and the set was completely animated, nothing but the reporter was real. Images would be shown on animated tablets and in the background you could see floating mobiles, TVs and computers. Therefore, I wanted to create a title sequence that explored the idea of communication, travelling information and technology. However, I also wanted it to reflect the fast pace of 60 Seconds News. 

I made a few storyboards (seen above), but found my third attempt to be most successful (bottom left). However, I found it to be too simple within its use of colour. Therefore, moving forward with this idea I would like to look into changing the colours used within the title sequence. 

Title Sequence: 'Kiss the Girls' Final Animation

Authors own

This is the final outcome for my title sequence made for the thriller Kiss the Girls. What I enjoy the most about this piece is its strong sense of style and atmosphere. I feel the sound and simplistic appearance compliments the complex, haunting nature of the themes explored in the film itself. However, one thing I'm not too happy with this the mask section of the sequence. The text that insinuates a tear drop is too ridged and the movement needs to be reworked. Also, as the mask fades away and is covered by loads of lip prints the outline of the mask can still be seen long after, a silly mistake done in Flash on my part.

I made almost everything using Flash, I drew everything on Flash, animated on Flash and added the typography on Flash. I used iMovie to add in the flashes into negative colour at the beginning and add in the sound. The sound is actually my voice. I looked into the nursery rhyme and reworked its melody and lyrics (only slightly), keeping the same rhythm, just slowing it down. Then I layered the sounds of water droplets over the top of my vocals, to represent the idea of water placed in the film. I recorded and put together all sound components in GarageBand. 

Title Sequence: 'Kiss the Girls' Experimentation

Quick montage of my Kiss the Girls experimentation

Authors own

Experimenting with the style and medium of the title sequences was a great way of figuring out how to represent the mood and themes of the film visually, as all successful title sequences do. I found what worked well here was the chance to diversify not only the style of each experiment, but also the way the different typography worked or did not work. Some ideas I found weaker than others, because the text was not legible enough or it came across a little too erratic. 

Screen shot, working in Flash

Authors own

A made most of the arms using paper cut out or drawing and scanning them into flash. I then added the typography in on flash, either drawing it digitally or modifying existing fonts. If I were to redo this process I would have tried out more software, like After Effects, to see the advantages or extra effects it could have brought to the style of the title sequence. 

Title Sequence: Kiss the Girls Storyboard

Final storyboard for the Kiss the Girls title sequence (left) and Style/media experimentation (right)

Photo is authors own

Creating the final storyboard for Kiss the Girls was great as a starting point for how I would like the sequence to look and what medium I could use to effectively produce the ideas seen within it. I really like the potential for a strong sense of style and atmosphere for the sequence. However, I'm not sure how well the first box, which would be live action, will fit in with the rest of the sequence. I was surprised how hard it was to find purpose in the flow of the sequence as it did not have a narrative and was relying solely on visual representations.

Experimenting with the style/medium a of the title sequence was the most creatively rewarding part of the process. I was able to explore ideas and identify what would work best in representing the themes of the film. I initially started working with newspaper print in relation to a scene in the movie where one of the killers has a safe full of newspaper clippings. Once I had tried out a few different ideas, I took them into flash and made a series of short animations. This gave me a clear indication of what would work best on the whole. It was a shock to find how engrossed you can become in exploring ideas and metaphors. In future I will definitely give myself a stricter amount of time in which I'm allowed to do this. 

Metamorphosis: Final Animation

Authors own

This is the final animation of my story, which I entitled 'Gregory's Soul' that explores the concept of metamorphosis through life, death and the spirit world. Overall, I am pleased with my outcome as it evokes the emotions I was aiming to strike in the viewers. I think the choices I made during production, e.g.  choosing to make it in black and white, the music I chose, the idea of inverting the tones once we entered the spirit world, were the prime reasons the mood of the piece was so well received. If I were to improve this animation I would of taken care to include more frames and movement, as in some places it does seem a little static and incomprehensible. However, these are points I can take on board and carry forward for my next animated projects. In order to avoid this happening in future projects I could make animatics before I start final production, making sure all transitions and keyframes work accordingly. 

I made the animation by hand using a lightbox to aid me. I then scanned each image into Flash and put them into sequence.The inverted colour frames where scanned into Photoshop, where I edited them and then imported them into Flash. Once this was done I add fade out transitions and small movements, such as blinking and the bug sprat entrance, using Flash. I then exported the file into iMovie where I added a glowing effect on the second half of the animation and included rolling credits at the end. 

I was surprised at just how time consuming the animation process is and how much there is to consider. In order to help my future animations, creating a check list would really help make things run more smoothly. 

Day 1: Illustration Book Cover

Mindmap of things associated with illustration

 Research into the context/range of illustration

Illustration with text/existing book cover designs

Experimenting with cover layouts

Experimenting with cover designs/titles

Using Illustrator to digitally draw the text

Font experimentation

Using indesign to create the final book cover

Final book cover design

All photos are authors own

This was the first in 6 one day projects that I completed over 2 weeks. Starting with the my chosen topic of illustration I proceeded to do research in an effort to produce a book cover design. I really enjoyed this project because it gave me an opportunity to learn more about illustration and it's diversity. It was also a chance to create a more illustrative graphic's piece, as it fitted well with the concept I was working with. It was challenging to come up with a concept, research, ideas and final piece all in one day, but it encourage a more efficient work approach.

I am pleased with my final book cover design. I think the pencil mark background I created by dragging a graphite stick across the page is in keeping with the typical associations with illustration e.g. personal, hand drawn marks. Also, small design choices such as, the handwriting type face in the corner of the front page to represent an artists signature, help the appearance of the piece. However, I'm not sure whether the image on the front cover is clear. My idea was that it would relate back to an earlier illustration I did, but was shaped to look like a question mark and the teeth spell out "Illustration". The title of the book being Illustration? 

New: A Deceptive Concept

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxLwxUTELvY

This is a link to a video my group and I made using the word NEW as a trigger for a concept.

My role in this film was to put all the film components together on iMovie from the research other members of my group done. I think the film was effective in conveying the message we were trying to communicate, which was that the line that separates old from new is so blurred that the idea of new is now distorted/deceptive if essentially we are just recycling the old. I do feel, however, that that the constant changing on music, although it had a purpose, was a bit distracting and uncomfortable. If I were to change something about the final film I would perhaps include fashion trends within music that illustrate the idea of recycling the old and stick to perhaps just two songs that communicate the idea through sound to avoid the constant track changing.

As a group, we brainstormed some ideas that connected with the word NEW, such as, new life, contemporary, technology, definitions etc. However, when looking at things like new trends we discovered that the term new is actual quite deceptive as they usually recycle/reuse old ideas. For example, in fashion you get vintage wear or in music you get genre replication etc. From this discovery we decided to work with deception as a concept and concentrated on music as we found it to be a topic that a lot of people could relate to. The process of working as a team to generate ideas was very helpful as it allowed me to widen my channel of thought by bouncing off other peoples ideas. It also help to refine ideas at an earlier stage as there were more of us to find holes or weaknesses in the concept and aright them.

This is a print screen of the work I did on iMovie to help knit each component of the film together, including images that other members of the group had provided, together with kinetic typography, music and a panning effect. Through using iMovie I was able to effectively, easily and quickly producing the film, which was helpful seen as we only had a week to plan and make it. I didn't experience any difficulty.

This image, used near the end of the film before the credits, was made by me on a word document. I simply used wordart and filled the inside of it with an image of the word old repeated, which I made. 

Graphics: 'Poster of the Future' Plan

The final task of the graphic's project was to first, generate some ideas for a poster from a gallery exhibiting my work in 2033 and then produce an A2 sized version of your favourite idea. However, before jumping straight into the A2 sized version, I reworked an idea in A4 in my sketch book then enlarged the design. I enjoyed the idea generation process and I was able to integrate exercises I had used in previous tasks to produce quick, un-generic ideas for my poster. It also helped me avoid any nasty mistakes on my large piece. For example, in the second image my hand that is pointing out of the TV screen is the wrong way round (notice the thumb is on the wrong side), also I changed some colours and mediums used.  

Graphics: Typography

Initially, I made marks on a page in several different ways and then turned them into different letters/numbers, creating different fonts. This exercise, much like the idea generation exercise used in the 3DD project, opened my mind to more innovation. However, I did notice that some of the letters weren't very effective as they were too unconventional.

I then used existing font types and manipulated them in different ways to communicate different things. I didn't particularly like this exercise as it was quick tedious, tracing around each letter over and over again, but it did challenge me.

Graphics: View Finder

I made a 2cmx2cm view finder and sectioned of an area of the collage featured in the previous post. I then enlarged the area x10 in my sketchbook and created a mixed media (collage, pencil, pen and oil pastel) study of it. I really liked the process and outcome of this exercise, mostly because it gave me an opportunity to develop my existing ideas and in turn allowed me to create a strong, graphic piece. 

3DD: Bridge Project

These are 5 ideas for bridges that I made in my sketchbook, not necessarily practical/functional, but encouraging innovative ideas and different styles. Each bridge is supposed to fold up easily in my book, which most do, apart from idea 3 and 5.  

3DD: Spaghetti Structure

This project involved using the idea generation exercise to produce a number of designs for a structure made from 20 pieces of spaghetti and a glue gun, which could hold 3 plastic balls. The sketches seen here are my initial ideas of which the 5th one I base my final structure on. The structure managed to hold each ball, however, would not stay upright for long without blue tac. I also wish I used more spaghetti to strengthen it's aesthetic value.